One Sweet Day (A Happily Ever After Novella) Hope Falls Edition

  One Sweet Day

  By

  Melanie Shawn

  Copyright 2012 by Melanie Shawn

  Cover Design by Hot Damn Designs

  Published by Red Hot Reads Publishing 2012

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this book. No part of this may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from Melanie Shawn. Exceptions are limited to reviewers who may use brief quotations in connection with reviews. No part of this book can be transmitted, scanned, reproduced, or distributed in any written or electronic form without written permission from Melanie Shawn.

  This book is a work of fiction. Places, names, characters and events are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sneak Peek: Snow Angel

  Excerpt: My First

  Excerpt: Sweet Reunion

  Other titles by Melanie Shawn

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  The Book Club

  Amanda

  Amanda Jacobs looked around her living room and brushed a shock of curls out of her eyes. She couldn't help grinning broadly as she surveyed her handiwork. Every piece of furniture shined brightly, and the room smelled lemony fresh. It looked exactly how she wanted it to look for the auspicious occasion of her three best friends' homecoming.

  She smiled affectionately as she picked up the last photo she had to dust. It was of her and her three best friends, all of whom she had missed terribly while they had been traveling all summer.

  First, there was Karina, the tall, dark beauty who was an international pop sensation. Karina had spent the summer touring with her fiancé, Ryan, who was also a successful musician, and the two of them had just arrived back into town that morning.

  Beside Karina stood Samantha, the petite and fiery Olympic snowboarder. She and her fiancé, Luke, worked at Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures, the adventure park for outdoor enthusiasts that Amanda herself owned, along with her own fiancé, Justin. Luke was also an Olympic snowboarder, and together he and Sam ran the ski and snowboarding program at Mountain Ridge. They had been out doing personal appearances all summer, building their personal brands and promoting the resort. It was kind of a brilliant strategy Sam had come up with, Amanda reflected—it was only the end of August and they were already almost fully booked for the winter season. That was unprecedented!

  Next to her was Lauren, the tall, elegant, blond beauty who was a powerful real estate agent and host of the real estate television show Home Sweet Vacation Home. She and Ben, her co-host and true love, had been on a press junket promoting the television show all summer and were now back in town as well. They had just gotten in yesterday.

  And then there was Amanda herself—short, cute, curly-haired—the only one of the Fabulous Four (as the group called themselves) who had never left Hope Falls—either that summer or in the years after high school.

  The picture was taken almost a year ago, right after the girls had reconnected. The previous fall, Karina, Sam, and Lauren had come back to Hope Falls to help Amanda deal with the death of her beloved father, Parker. Not only was there the emotional process of grieving that she had to get through, but there was also the logistical complication of taking over Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventure and getting it open in time for the winter season.

  Adding to all of that was the fact that Parker had also left a portion of the adventure park to Justin, who had been a local boy and Parker's right-hand man. He lived in the bunkhouse out back for the majority of his teenage years. Justin had also been Amanda's one true love, but he had left in the dead of night with no warning. Parker had been playing the part of cupid in his will. Justin had returned and he and Amanda reconnected, and the rest, as they say, is history

  When Amanda thought back on that time in her life immediately after her father's death, it was like Charles Dickens had said: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

  While she was going through one of the darkest periods of her life, dealing with the death of her father whom she loved so much, she had nonetheless reconnected, not only with her true love, but with her three best friends—the group of girls she had been close to since the early days of their childhood and through their teenage years. They had cemented the bond that had always been there, reforming their core group, The Fabulous Four.

  The three other girls, as it turned out, had each also been at pivotal points in their lives—points where they wished to make big changes—and the idea of moving home and getting back to their roots appealed to them. So before the week of the funeral was up, each of them had made the decision to return to Hope Falls full time, and Amanda had been thrilled. Not only was Justin back and there to stay, but so were her three nearest and dearest friends. It felt right, somehow—like the way things were meant to be.

  The only thing that could have made it better was if her father had been there to see her so happy.

  But Amanda knew there was no point in dwelling on that. Not when she should be focused on her wedding and the fact that all three of the girls were headed here right now to have their first Book Club meeting in months.

  Of course, in their tradition (and much to Lauren's chagrin), discussing the book was never much on the agenda. "Book Club" was more like a code word for "Drink Wine And Gossip Club"—and tonight was certainly going to be a doozy, what with all three girls (Amanda was sure) having tales of fun and excitement from the road to share.

  As Amanda set the now thoroughly dusted picture of her and her friends down, she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs, and her stomach erupted in tiny little butterflies. She grinned broadly. Even after all this time, knowing that Justin was coming into the room affected her as profoundly as it had when she was a love-struck teenager.

  She whirled around expectantly and launched herself into his arms as he stepped off of the bottom step. He laughed, hugging her tightly, and then pressed his lips to hers for a spine-tingling kiss. A soft moan escaped her mouth. Justin’s strong work-worn hands wrapped tightly around her hips as his expert fingers dug firmly into her backside.

  Amanda rocked her hips against his suggestively just as she felt her knees give out under the weight of a sudden thud as Teddy came bounding in. Reluctantly pulling back from the kiss, she sighed as she reached her hand down to give her thirteen year old black lab Teddy some love. He hated it when he wasn’t included in snuggle time.

  Teddy had been a gift to Amanda from her father on her sixteenth birthday. He had been her rock through her teen years, failed relationships, and the loss of her beloved father. When Justin had worked for Amanda’s father over a decade ago Teddy had been his shadow. If possible, he was the one creature on earth that loved Amanda and Justin more than they loved each other.

  Justin also reached down to pet their four-legged boy. “Who knew a dog could be such a coc—”

  “Justin!” Amanda shrieked, putting her hand over Justin’s mouth.

  She felt his lips turn up into a smile beneath her palm, and as soon as she
moved her hand, he finished his thought, “—blocker.”

  “He is not,” Amanda defended. “He just wants to be part of the love.”

  “I know.” Justin nodded in agreement as he pulled Amanda towards him. “That’s my point.”

  She smiled as she looked up into her soon-to-be husband’s eyes. In Justin’s arms was her most favorite place to be. His large brown eyes looked down at her, filled to the brim with love, as he brushed her unruly curls back from her forehead, planting a tender kiss on the skin he had just exposed.

  “I can’t wait to be Mrs. Barnes,” Amanda said dreamily.

  “That's what I like to hear,” Justin smiled affectionately, kissing her deeply again. "I never want it any other way."

  “But,” she said as she peppered light kisses on his lips, “as much as I'd love to stand around playing kissy-face with you all day, the girls are going to be here any minute and I need to get the house ready.”

  Justin looked around in amazement. “The house is cleaner than I've ever seen it!” He pulled her closer to him. “How much more 'ready' does it need to be?”

  Amanda looked around the room critically, shaking her head. “I don't know. I just… I haven't seen them in three months. This is special, you know?”

  His arms wrapping around her, looking deeply in her eyes Jason breathed, “I’ve had you all to myself all summer. I’m not sure I’m ready to share you with everybody.” Then a slow smile spread across his face as he said, “You know I do like books. I don’t have to go out for drinks with the boys. I could stay for book club.”

  Amanda laughed. ‘It's not about the books, Justin. We mainly drink and talk.”

  With eyes sparkling and just a hint of a smile, Justin countered, “Rumor has it I can talk.”

  Amanda grinned up at him, narrowing her eyes. “That's true. You should stay tonight. I think the topics on the agenda include which brand of tampon is the most effective and what men are really thinking when we ask them what they're thinking and they say 'nothing’.”

  “Great! I think the male point of view is exactly what you need.”

  “Hey!” she added eagerly, as if a brilliant idea had just occurred to her. “You could actually be our expert witness on that count! You could sit in the middle of us, and we could all surround you and grill you about it like you're on The View!”

  Laughing he reached out and grabbed her, burying his face into her neck.

  Just then, the doorbell rang.

  “They're here!”Amanda squealed, racing towards the door with Teddy right on her heels. Flinging open the door she saw six of her favorite people in the whole world: Karina and Ryan, Sam and Luke, and Lauren and Ben.

  “You're here!” she cried, echoing her seconds-earlier squeal and grasping each one of them in turn in a tight embrace. She ushered all of her friends inside, exclaiming, “Come in, come in! Do you guys want a drink?” Justin shook his head as he said, "Actually, I think we're gonna get going.”

  Ryan furrowed his brow in puzzlement. “Really? I thought we'd come in for a few minutes first and all have a drink together before we left”

  Justin was already moving toward the door. “Nope, we’re headin’ out.”

  Ryan shrugged, and the other guys agreed, although they still looked slightly confused.

  “Okay, then," Ben said. "I've got an early meeting tomorrow, so I don't mind being the designated driver. Why don't we take my car?”

  With that the guys were out the door. Karina furrowed her brow as she crossed her arms and looked at Amanda. “What was that about?”

  Amanda smiled as she waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, just before you got here he was joking around, asking why he wasn't ever invited to Book Club. I told him that our main topic of conversation tonight was going to be comparing and contrasting the most effective brands of tampons, but he was welcome to stay if he wanted to. Oddly enough he didn’t want to stay.”

  The girls laughed together as they all trailed into Amanda's living room and settled on the couch. “Enough talk about men!” Sam declared. “I want to hear about everybody's summer!”

  “Oh, yes, me too!”Amanda agreed enthusiastically. “I've been missing you girls like crazy all summer, and email is just not the same! I want to hear about every single second!”

  “Okay, who’s first?” Sam asked.

  Lauren smiled. “I vote Karina. She always has the craziest stories.”

  “I second that,” Sam and Amanda chorused together.

  Karina did in fact, by far, have the most outrageous stories from the road—not only out of the people in the room, but also out of anyone the three of them had ever met!

  Karina shrugged and shook her head. “Well, I hate to disappoint you,”she said regretfully, “but this stretch of touring was extremely tame comparatively. I think that Ryan is a calming influence on me, to tell you the truth.” She smiled wickedly and then added, “Of course, he and I did get up to a lot of naughty fun together, but that's not anything that I’ll be sharing at Book Club.” She winked.

  “Oh, Lord, it's certainly nothing we want to hear either!” Lauren replied emphatically.

  Karina laughed. “Well, I will tell you one thing. The crowds certainly love my man. As warm and rowdy a reception as I always thought I got from my fans when I took the stage before he came along, it has magnified tenfold now since Ryan has been on the road with me. They really love him.”

  “They love the two of you together,” Sam corrected. “You guys have this crazy chemistry, and it's really palpable, especially in person. I'm not surprised it drives the crowds wild. That's what people are reacting to.”

  Karina nodded. “You’re probably right. Every time we are on stage together it hits me how amazing what we have is. It's so rare that two people have a chemistry on a personal level that actually translates into their professional work together. I’m one lucky girl.”

  Sam grinned. “Speaking of a personal chemistry that translates into professional work together,” she said innocently. “Lauren? Do you have any stories to share from this summer?”

  The four girls laughed heartily. They all remembered clearly the sparks that had flown between Lauren and Ben when the two of them had started hosting their real estate television program together and how the crackling tension that was flying between them on a personal level had translated in an electric way onto the television screen.

  Lauren smiled. “That was a very smooth segue, Sam,” she said, patting her friend companionably on the shoulder. “But as it happens, Ben and I had a wonderful summer. The press and promotional appearances we did for Home Sweet Vacation Home were so fun and low-key—nothing like the type of thing that you have to deal with, Karina. Just a lot of real estate and home and garden trade shows, doing guest segments on morning shows, segments on news programs about the current state of the housing market—things like that. Ben and I were really in our element, you know? And getting to travel all over the country together—it was almost like an extended vacation more than anything,” Lauren concluded.

  “I totally get that!” Sam moved her feet beneath her on the couch, getting comfortable. “With Luke and me, it was the same. Lots of different sports conventions, working trade shows, guest segments on ESPN—it was actually even, in a way, better than an extended vacation because not only did we get to travel around and spend a ton of time together, but we also got to fill our days with meeting people who were excited about our work and talking about things we are super passionate about. It was honestly the best summer of my entire life!”

  They all nodded in agreement. Karina turned to Amanda.

  “How about you?” she teased. “An entire summer without the three of us constantly knocking at your door at unexpected hours. I don't suppose you and Justin put that time to good use, did you?”

  A blush arose on Amanda's cheeks, something that always looked stark against her milky white china doll complexion. “Well,” she deflected, “we did make some much-needed improvements
to Mountain Ridge.”

  “Not what I meant!” Karina sing-songed.

  Amanda laughed, still embarrassed. “And, you know, we expanded as well,” she continued to hedge. “We have three times the amount of cleared nature trails when compared with last summer, and we replaced all of the signs that mark the paths with these really beautiful hand-hewn, carved wooden plaques that blend in so much more seamlessly with the natural atmosphere around the place. And we’ve made a select number of rooms and cabins pet friendly. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on that and they book up fast.”

  “I love it! Whenever I stay at a hotel that’s pet friendly, I love seeing the animals on vacation with their families,” Sam said. “Okay, we’ve caught up. Now what I really want to talk about is the wedding!”

  “Yes, the wedding!” Lauren and Karina echoed enthusiastically.

  “In three days, you are going to be Mrs. Justin Barnes,” Sam said, smiling. “How does it feel?”

  Amanda sighed dreamily, clutching her hands to her chest. “Like a fantasy,” she gushed. “I've been doodling 'Mrs. Justin Barnes' and 'Amanda Barnes' on my notebooks since…what? Late elementary school? Early junior high at least. Now it's finally going to be true. In just three days! I can hardly believe it! I’m so glad you guys are here!”

  Karina snorted, “Please! Like, where else are we going to be when our best friend is getting married! Give me a break!”

  “Exactly,” Lauren agreed.

  “Yup!” Sam chimed in. “And I'm really excited about Nikki and Amy being in the wedding party as well. I love those girls, and I think it's going to be so much fun!”

  “I know,” Amanda agreed. “At first, when Justin said that he wanted not just you three as well as Ryan, Luke, and Ben in the wedding but also Jake and Eric and Amy and Nikki in the wedding? It was a little overwhelming. You know? I had always thought of my wedding as being this really tiny, intimate, friends-and-family type of affair. Not the big sort of event that would entail double digits’ worth of attendants in the wedding party! But the more I pictured it in my mind, the more I decided that it was absolutely perfect!”